Gubernatorial candidates make final pitch to voters ahead of Tuesday’s election

On the final day of early voting, Hannah Pingree campaigned in Portland with President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson to remind voters that their reproductive rights are on the ballot. In Kittery, Rick Bennett wrapped up his walking tour that he started in Fort Kent several months ago. And Bobby Charles held a forum in Auburn, inviting people who disagreed with him — including “Gen Z liberals” and “Somali immigrants” — to debate at the Auburn mall.

Their different approaches to the final few days of the election reflect each of the candidates’ campaigning styles: Bennett has focused on meeting voters where they’re at, Pingree has highlighted her prominent endorsements, and Charles has gone on the offensive.

“Bobby is holding a forum where he’s actually asking people to come argue with him,” Pingree, the Democratic nominee, said at her event Thursday. “I think now, five days before the election, this election is about how we actually come together to envision something better for Maine’s future.”

Pingree has raised more money than both of her opponents combined. According to most recent reports filed with the Maine Ethics Commission, the Democrat raised more than $4.9 million. Charles has raised just over $2 million, and Bennett has raised slightly below a million dollars.

Pingree is also considered the frontrunner in the race, having led consistently in the polls. In a mock election held across the state with more than 12,000 students across 115 participating schools, she won with 41.8% of votes. Charles came in second with 30.4% and Bennett got 24.4% of the student vote, overperforming in comparison with the polls, which have put him between 8 and 11%.

Dueling events

On a stage in the middle of the Auburn mall, Charles debated willing participants. A mother concerned about reproductive rights. A low-income high school student worried about affording higher education. A Black woman asking how she can trust him to stand up to racism. 

About 50 people filtering in and out Thursday evening to observe the conversations, a campaign event aimed at connecting with voters who disagree with the Republican gubernatorial nominee, though many in the audience were his supporters. 

Ricky Whitmore, a high school senior from Turner, who has been canvassing for the Democratic Party, asked Charles if he would commit to keeping the state’s free community college program intact. 

Charles said he’d want to adjust it, mentioning his disagreement with how people who recently moved to Maine can participate. Charles told Whitmore he wanted to “fortify” him in knowing that his commitment to education “is about as high as it gets.” When Whitmore asked again for a clear answer, Charles said his “instinct is that everything that’s working about the program stays in place,” before adding, “There’s an awful lot of the state that presents itself as working, but it’s not working.”

Afterward, Whitmore told Maine Morning Star that he felt Charles danced around the topic. Charles had mentioned that he came from a low-income family like Whitmore. But Whitmore said he sees the free community college program “as an integral piece of how low-income families get their kids to college.”

Emily Angela, a 29-year-old content creator from Lewiston, told Charles she’s faced a lot of racism as a Black woman living in Maine, a predominantly white state. 

“I think the biggest thing for me is having trust in who I vote for,” she said. “How can I be confident that you will stand up for racism?”

Charles has faced criticism from his opponents, elected officials and civil rights groups for statements and social media posts they’ve condemned as racist, specifically targeting the Somali-American community. In his response Thursday night, Charles said, “we ought to be measuring ourselves by how we treat each other… You deserve a governor who isn’t just full of words, but lives this idea. And I have lived this idea all my life.” 

Emily Angela told Maine Morning Star after that she likely still would not vote for Charles but respected his answer. 

“I do respect that he said in front of a crowd of people that he would have my back and the back of people of color, but I want to see action,” she said. “If he’s elected governor, is that going to happen?”

A focus on reproductive rights

She, Whitmore and others shared personal stories to frame their questions to Charles. That was also the case for Margaret Rinaldi, 35 of Wales, who said she had two miscarriages and asked what he would do to protect reproductive rights if elected. In ads, Charles has called abortion “abhorrent” but on Thursday he reiterated his stance from recent debates: he opposes late-term abortion but thinks it should be allowed if the mother’s life is in jeopardy or in cases of rape or incest. 

His record on the issue has come up throughout his campaign, notably when his sister cited his opposition to abortion as part of the reason she backed Pingree.  

At Pingree’s press conference, she said she would want to ask Charles to justify his statement that the issue of abortion “does not matter,” referring to a comment he made during debates.

McGill Johnson and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England CEO Nicole Clegg — who also heads the organization’s political action committee in Maine — also criticized the Republican nominee Thursday for his previous comments about reproductive rights. These also included alleging during an interview with Maine Newsroom in September that he could talk pregnant women out of having  an abortions.

“Maybe instead of inviting women into his office to tell them what they should do when they are pregnant and inserting himself into (their) deeply personal and private decisions, Bobby Charles should spend a little less time talking and a lot more time listening,” Clegg said.

“Because if we listen to them, reproductive freedom isn’t an abstract political issue. It’s about decisions about our bodies, our families, and our future.”

Pingree contrasted that with her own record of supporting reproductive freedom, and promised to enshrine abortion rights in the Maine Constitution if elected, “so we never have to again depend on who’s in the White House or the governor’s office.”

McGill Johnson said Maine’s next governor will be essential in continuing to build on the protections for reproductive freedom Gov. Janet Mills’ administration put into place after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022, including ensuring abortion remains legal in the state, making sure that insurance covers it, and protecting abortion patients and providers from out-of-state prosecutors.

“Even when we win majorities for reproductive freedom in Congress … Donald Trump will be in the White House for two more years,” McGill Johnson said. “That’s why this election is so important. Governors are the best defense against his cruelty.”

The press conference was also intended to encourage people to vote, particularly first time voters. Pingree said many elections in Maine, particularly for local office, are decided by a handful of votes, making it essential for everyone to show up at the polls this year. Already, more than 273,984 Mainers have voted early, according to the University of Florida Election Lab national tracker. 

University of Southern Maine student Reese Achorn voted for the first time in this year’s Democratic primaries, after she got an internship that required her to watch all the gubernatorial primary debates and said that Pingree stood out to her among the field.

On Thursday, she told the attendees, “I know a lot of us feel like our vote doesn’t really count, but believe me when I tell you, it truly does.”

“However, the people who want to take away our rights are hoping we stay home, making it our job to prove them wrong,” Achorn added.

Meanwhile, Bennett wrapped up his walking tour of more than 40 stops across the state, which his campaign said has allowed the independent candidate to meet voters in their communities. Over the past few months, several campaign videos have shown him meeting Mainers in local businesses and in their neighborhoods, asking them what they love about their home state.

“I’m running for governor because Maine needs a different kind of leadership,” he told supporters at a town hall in Brunswick earlier this month. “A leadership that’s centered on integrity, not ideology, and a leadership that actually unites us for a change around our many shared values and a leadership with a relentless focus on actually getting things done.”